It may be assumed that the House of Commons is
deeply concerned with the Home Front. Once again a report from the Select Committee on National Expenditure has stirred up a problem of first magnitude, Civil Defence. The House will shortly devote a two days' Session to this subject and it is possible that some fundamental administrative reforms will be ventilated. But Civil Defence is only part of a much wider subject, the health and welfare of the country after twenty months of war. The enemy will try to defeat us by sea, by air, and on land. To stave off defeat and renew the offensive, which became possible in Libya and Abyssinia, two things are essential. First of all we must have guns, tanks, planes and ships, and secondly we must look after the welfare of all those who are making the munitions and growing the food. This is commonly called the Home Front. Civil Defence is an essential part of that Front ; it is not so much an end in itself. Efficiency must be judged by one criterion, whether it enables production to be speeded-up to the highest point con- sistent with health. Hence the ceaseless questions on food, which of all things is essential to health. But another question is rapidly assuming importance—the rationing of house-room and accommodation. Mr. Ernest Brown will have to show that he is capable of meeting a number of new demands on the nation's housing-space.
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